On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (9)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
. _ , ., • /flSitlVtr ((hTttTtiTfl W-J UW WUUiuu* ?—
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
ing at one another like roasted apples , and rou never hear more , seven evenings out if eight , than the tinkle of the Speaker ' s bell . When that summons is sounded you rush to the lobby , and if too late , request the reporters to mention that you were accidentally sliut out . Sometimes , it is true * the members are sitting in Committees ; but it is disgraceful that Committees should sitafter the House has met . The point we insist on is , that when the name of a popular member is recorded on a hundred division lists , it would be follv to suppose that he has fought
a hundred battles . Upon half those occasions he did not enter the House until the bell rang , and he was generally liable to be shut out . Oases may be supposed , of course , in which no man could be expected to do more than vote . When Mr . Spooneb brings on his Maynooth motion the whole duty of Parliament is to quash it , and the members do all that can be required from men of mortal virtue when they accumulate ' noes' in the lobby . But in a general sense ' accidentally shut out' is a p hrase that indicates how grossly the constituencies are imposed upon by their representatives .
Untitled Article
NEWS JOR AUDITOES . In the Eeport of the Poor-law Commissioners published some years ago , it is laid down that an auditor is ' bound to ascertain the reasonableness of every item' in the accounts submitted to him . But Mr . Thomas F . low : eb Ellis , Attorney-G-eneral of the Duchy of [ Lancaster , at a salary of 1001 . a year ( not including fees ) , holds a different opinion . Mr . CoNiurGHAM , last Friday week , put to Thojvias FiiOWEB Ellis this question : — -
. " X > o you believe that the position and duties or the auditor of the Duchy of Lancaster are such that if the Chancellor , or the Chancellor and Council of the Duchy , called upon him to sign , as auditor , a bill which , to his knowledge , was a misapplication of the property , or contained any fraudulent act upon the property , he ought , without exercising any judgment in the matter , to sign such bill , or other document , because the Chancellor and Council had
sometime made a minute that the auditor was to sign them , on the mere production to him of the minute ?" " Yes , " replied the Attorney-General . So the Crown has a law officer of this sort ! But Mr . Elxis must be allowed to enlarge : — . * ' I have no doubt that , in his pure character of auditor , although he was aware that the Chancellor had either committed a fraud in passing the resolution , or had been imposed ail ) on by fraud , if the Chancellor persisted in the minute , it would be the auditor ' s duty to sign it . "
If this be the general principle , we should not be surprised to hear that millions of money are annually embezzled in our public departments . But what is an auditor ? We know what he is supposed to be , as an officer of a commercial company . He has to check the accounts , and a meeting of shareholders
¦ would hoot him were he to cover witli his signature the record of a misappropriation . Suppose I / eopolu Redpath at the head of a IDuchy . It is diacovered that he lias grown rich by defalcation . Is tho auditor blameless ¦ whose signature has sanctioned the accounts ? jfteally , we prefer Mr . Bbbtolaooi ' s scruples to Mr . Ellis ' s law .
This scandal becomes worse as the revelation widens . When the Committee has presented its Report , tho public will expect Jbo hear further discussion , in order that the Crown property may not continue under this conscious and deliberate maladministration
But what of General Fox and his responsibilit ies ? and what of Lord Watebpabk and his prerogative ? Has no one the spirit to ask a question ?
Untitled Article
There is no learned man but will confess he much profited by reading controversies , haft senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not at least . betolerablefor his adversary to write?—Mii / ton .
Untitled Article
THE CAUSES OF THE INDIAN MUTINY . ( To the Editor of the Leader ^ Sir , —Observation during a twenty years' service in Bengal , leaves me not a shadow of doubt that the real provocation to discontent in India lies in that gigantic absenteeism that extracts from its pauper population a sum of ( in every shape , public and private ) probably not less than five millions per annum , for which not a shadow of equivalent goes back in any shape , and which has spread and is spreading through our new as well as our old
provinces , unmitigated pauperism in gradations as manifest as the progress of our « annexations' from Indus to the Burhampootra . In fact , the proposition is too obvious for contradiction , that the most arbitrary indigenous rule must be happier for the governed than that quiet , systematic , and unrelenting application of the screw , in which has hitherto consisted our whole Indian statesmanship , and which allows to Indian industry but a beggarly subsistence from its own toil , lest another turn of the screw should extinguish life and revenue together .
The Sepoy , it is true , is , individually , well paid ; but it must be remembered that we have not yet succeeded in Christianizing him into the ! adoption of our more civilized maxim of « every man for himself , and God for us all ; ' on the contrary , despite the holy labours of bishops , chaplains , and missionaries , the poor deluded heathen still systematically halfstarves himself to devote , perhaps , five out of the seven rupees per month on which , if a Christian , he
would luxuriate , to the maintenance of a pauper village of relations , whose claims his absurd religion teaches him to acknowledge in the most distant degrees . The outbreak of the army , therefore , is but the complaint of pauperized provinces , who , with the common itise of conscious helplessness , profess disapprobation of the insurrection ,. until encouraged by a glimmering of ultimate success , to join heart and hand int chasing the hated . and arrogantferingee from their soil .
Honestly to hold India for its benefit as well as our own , we must employ agents who acknowledge no religion but the religion of universal justice , content to participate in , instead of monopolizing the fruits of industry , and in deference to justice expelling those mercenary impostors who , under the guise of apostles of Christianity , habitually and ignorantly misrepresent , victimize , and revile the patient and pauper millions , from whom they extort for ChrisCs sake ! a luxurious subsistence .
" You have only" ( says Commissioner Tucker , of the Bengal Civil Service ) " to compare our new provinces with our old . From the recently-acquired Punjab , where the people have had little of law and government education , and are comparatively truthful and honest , tho population becomes worse and worse as you descend lower and lower to our old possessions of Calcutta and Madras , being , I believe , peculiarly bad where the native mind has been most shaken by missionary efforts . "
Such are the fruits of our religion in India , while there is probably not a civilian of any standing or information in Bengal but will admit that , as a rule , with few if any exceptions , the ryut , or agricultural classes ( and Manchester , be it remembered , has reduced nearly tho whole population to the condition of petty cultivators and labourers ) , are in a state of perennial thraldom to the usurer , without whoso aid their lands must be uncultivated and themselves die of starvation , in default of those advances which , under both Hindoo and Mahometan supremacy , were obtained , when required , from the public treasury . G . R . East India United Sorvico Club , July , 1857 .
Untitled Article
COURT FAVOUR . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ' ) Sir , —After considering tho following illustration of a pernicious system , let your readers decide whether or not favouritism still lurks among us . In 1854 , a lioutcnnnt ( of five years' service ) was slightly wounded nt tho Almn . In consequence thereof ho returned homo , and , before many weeks had elapsed , married tho daughter of an ' honourable' gentleman enjoying a lucrative berth at Court .
By this auspicious union the professional fortunes of our hero were ensured . At once the young captain —such was his present rank—became Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General at the Horse Guards ; there he remained—his regiment fighting on in the Crimea while the war lasted—till the beginning of the present spring , when the poor old battered corps , "hardly recovered from tbe buffets of the campaign in which it had borne a glorious part , was pla ced under orders for China . According to a salutary rule , of which the Iron Duke was author , Captain oughtin this conjunction , to have done one of
, two things : sailed or sold—fallen again into the ranks , or cut the service . He did neither . He retired on half-pay , and ( his first appointment at Whitehall having been abolished ) was immediately despatched to Aldershot , in the capacity of Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General . But , strange to say , even this holiday post is considered unsuitable to the gallant officer , whose military career we are dissecting . Within the last few weeks he has succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel Addison as ' Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General to the Forces , ' another change * of course , for the better . officer
Thus , in less than three years , a young , without prominent abilities , with only the education of a mere regimental subaltern , has been dallying with three well-paid staff appointments , in or near * town ; ' and yet captains and majors who struggled through the whole of the war , who are sc arred with wounds , who have lost much of their precious health in doing the work of their country , are turned adrift with—half-pay ! Out upon it ! When the drone fattens and the bee hungers , there must be something rotten in the State of Denmark . I am , sir , your obedient servant , July 15 th . ANTI-CHICANE .
Untitled Article
TALBOT DIVORCE . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —Your readers will not have forgotten the very extraordinary evidence given at the bar of the House of Lords in the Talbot Divorce case by the Reverend Abram Sargent , Vicar of Derrygarth and Prebendary of Cashel . , , _ On the 13 th of last month the Reverend Mr . Sargent gave himself up to the resident magistrate at Clonmel , confessing that he had been guilty of forgery . He was sent to gaol , but has been since handed over to the care of his friends on the ground of" his being insane . .
Thus it appears that this witness , whose testimony the Lord Chancellor considered ' extremely important , ' and . of whom Lord St . Leonards said that " he was a witness whose truth nobody could doubt , and upon whose evide nce it was impossible to throw any imputation , " is , in fact , either a felon or a
madman . I trust that a sense of justice to my sister-in-law , Mrs . Talbot , will induce you to admit this letter , the statements in which I am fully prepared to substantiate , into your columns . I am , sir , your obedient servant , Thomas Terxxus Paget . Humljerstone , near Leicester , 15 th July , 1857 .
. _ , ., • /Flsitlvtr ((Htttttitfl W-J Uw Wuuiuu* ?—
( Dfltftt Cntmril-
Untitled Article
w riw rats DEPARTMENT A 3 AXJ . OPINIONS , HOWKVEK BXTKEME , ABB 1 xl ™ % r £ > j £ ? nSSSunSa , the editor ' nbcbssakiiy uoips him-SELF RESPONSIBLE fOB NONE . ]
Untitled Article
Me . Buskin on Government Patronage of Art . — Mr . Ruslun has delivered a lecture at the Manchester
Athenieum on the connexion between art and political economy . The lecturer read a very eloquent address , in which ho contended that what was wanted to foster art was a truly paternal Government , the type of which he took from a farm not governed by a master and with hired servants , but where the master was tho father and the servants were sons . Such a person might sometimes make laws that would bo irksome , but just then was tho time when it was most necessary to obey them ; and so it was with a wise nation . This kind of national law wo
had hitherto made judicial only , but he thought as wo advanced in social knowledge wo should endeavour to make tho Government paternal as well aa judicial , and have authorities who would protect us in our follies and visit us in our distresses . Tlie lecturer wont on to show how tho art talent of tho country would be best collected under such a Government , and how best trained . In addition to Government schools to encourage the youth , in all large towns ho would have schools where all the idlo farm lads could go who Iiad been put to unsuitable occupations . What was wanted was that all the talent
wo possessed should be dovolopcd , and that it should bo so fostered As not to sour or distort the mind of tho student when under training . Having shown how lie could bo bost trained , tho lecturer proceeded to show how our art labour might bo best employed , so as to produce tho greatest and most lasting results to tho nation . Ho criticised sevoroly tho tastes which led to the production of tho ohoap rather than tho good , as shown in the cheap illustrated papers , and tho ephemeral rather than tho lasting , as shown in tho wator-colour drawings of tho last twenty years , net the * tho colours nor the pnpor boing capable of durability . — 7 'imcs .
Tjim Cboi's continue to progress favourably , aided b y ho splondid weathor ; and tliero seems to be every propoofc of a bountiful harvest ,
Untitled Article
THE LEADER . [ No . 382 , Jtjiy 18 , 1857 . . ¦ ¦ - ¦ - I 1 ^ ; . _^ _^<^ M ^ . ^^^^^^^
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), July 18, 1857, page 688, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2201/page/16/
-